Migueleño Chiquitano
# Migueleño Chiquitano

Migueleño Chiquitano (self-denomination: ózura [ˈo̞tsuɾḁ], literally 'our speech') is a variety of the Chiquitano language of the Macro-Jê family, which is remembered by several dozen people of the Chiquitano ethnicity in San Miguel de Velasco (Santa Cruz), Bolivia, as well as in neighboring villages.

Migueleño is closely related to other varieties of the Chiquitano language, such as Bésɨro and Eastern $Chiquitano.^{:2}$ Its most salient phonological features include the occurrence of the voiceless velar fricative /x/ corresponding to the retroflex /ʂ/ of the other dialects and the merger of the palatalized counterparts of /p/ and /k/ as [c̠]. It is also the only variety of Chiquitano in which distinct first person singular prefixes have been documented for the male and female genderlects.

## Phonology

### Consonants

The consonant inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for the IPA values of each $consonant).^{:4}$

Migueleño Chiquitano consonants :

| | labial | denti-alveolar | postalveolar | retroflex | palatal | velar | glottal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| obstruents | p /p/ | t /t/ | ty /t̠ʲ/ | | ky /c̠/ | k /k/ | ’ /ʔ/ |
| affricates | | z /ts/ | | | ch /t͡ʃ/ | | |
| fricatives | | s /s/ | | x /ʂ/ | xh /ɕ/ | j /x/ | j- /h/ |
| approximants | b /β̞/ | r /ɾ/ | | | y /j/ | g /ɰ/ | |
| nasals | m /m/ | n /n/ | | | ñ /ɲ/ | ng /ŋ/ | |

### Vowels

The vowel inventory of Migueleño Chiquitano is shown below (the orthographic representation is given in italics; the characters in slashes stand for the IPA values of each $vowel).^{:4}$

Migueleño Chiquitano vowels :

| Oral | Oral | Oral | Nasal | Nasal | Nasal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| i /i/ | ɨ /ɨ/ | u /u/ | ĩ, im, in /ĩ/ | ɨ̃, ɨm, ɨn /ɨ̃/ | ũ, um, un /ũ/ |
| e /ɛ/ | a /a/ | o /o/ | ẽ /ɛ̃/ | ã /ã/ | õ /õ/ |

## Genderlects

In Migueleño Chiquitano, male speech is distinct from female speech in exhibiting extra morphological complexity. In particular, the male genderlect distinguishes between three grammatical genders (masculine, non-human animate, and feminine/inanimate), whereas the female genderlect has no grammatical gender distinctions at all (all nouns behave like the feminine/inanimate nouns in the male genderlect).

In addition, the first person singular prefixes are distinct in the male genderlect (underlying form |ij-|) and in the female genderlect (underlying form $|ix-|).^{:90}$

1 SG prefix :

| translation | female speech | male speech |
| - | - | - |
| I stand | xhatɨɨka’i | yatɨɨka’i |
| my backbone | xhotopɨ́riyɨ | yotopɨ́riyɨ |

Female and male speech further differ in using different suffixes (female -ki, male -che) when deriving content interrogative/relative $words.^{:91}$

Interrogative and relative words :

| translation | female speech | male speech |
| - | - | - |
| Who is that behind whom you are going? (Whom do you follow?) | ¿Ũka na’a si’iki aɨrotɨ́? | ¿Ti’i naki si’iche aɨrotɨ́? |
| Whose son? | ¿aɨtokí? | ¿aɨtoché? |
| Where from? | ¿aukikí? | ¿aukiché? |
| Whose? | ¿ezakí? | ¿ezaché? |

There are also differences in the choice of the demonstratives.

## Chiquitano homilies

In San Miguel de Velasco, Catholic homilies are traditionally recited in an early form of Migueleño Chiquitano on certain religious occasions. This practice can be traced back to the Jesuit reductions of the 18th century, and the texts of the homilies have been transmitted (both orally and in the written form) across generations. The homilies have been extensively studied by Severin Parzinger, who has published a compilation thereof.

